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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28551078">Mistletoe?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegolasLovely/pseuds/LegolasLovely'>LegolasLovely</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Hobbit - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU- Erebor was never taken, Alternate Universe, Christmas, Fluff, Mistletoe, Young Fíli and Kíli, Yuletide, gender neutral reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:01:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,538</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28551078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegolasLovely/pseuds/LegolasLovely</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As Fíli and Kíli take down the decorations from their Yule celebrations, they find something interesting.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fíli (Tolkien)/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mistletoe?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is one I wanted so badly to write for Christmas and just didn’t have time. So I shuffled around the timings and made it work for this time of year! Well, maybe it should be posted at the end of January… but I didn’t want to wait! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.</p>
<p>Notes: In this AU, Erebor was never taken, so Fíli and Kíli grew up in the mountain. Also the boys are in their thirties and forties here. CUTIES.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p>
<p>Yule was over. In fact, the last day of Yuletide had passed several weeks ago and since then, most of the festive decorations had been collected from the shelves, or taken off their hooks. Un-decorating, or tidying, or- as Kíli liked to call it- sucking the joy from the halls was a tiring and time consuming task in the mountain of Erebor. There were thousands of candles hidden away in plain sight and bouquets of garland in every corner, trees and plants in rooms both large and small and wreaths on every door. Each year, it took all those extra weeks to pull everything down and pack it away safe for the next season. </p>
<p>And it took even longer when the job was left to Princes Fíli and Kíli.</p>
<p>King Thorin made it a rule, a law, really, that his nephews would be the ones to tidy up the grand ballroom of Erebor. He said it created an incentive for them to behave on the nights of Yule that were spent in the great room.</p>
<p>However, Kíli declared it torturous and Fíli deemed it boring. But eventually, even if it took weeks for them to do it, they both did as they were told. After all, if the decorations weren’t ever taken down, they wouldn’t have to be put up the following year, which happened to be one of the brothers’ favorite activities at the year’s end.</p>
<p>So after sulking and grumbling and taking in the last moments of beauty of their favorite snowy chandeliers and leafy wreaths, Fíli took to his ladder and Kíli took to the shelves below to start their work.</p>
<p>As always, before long, Kíli grew distracted. </p>
<p>     “Fee! Come down here!”</p>
<p>Fíli called over his shoulder on the tall ladder, hand half reached out for one of the last candles on the highest shelf in the room. “What is it?”</p>
<p>     “Come look!”</p>
<p>     “Right <em>now</em>?” Fíli asked, stretching towards the wall and cursing his brother for picking this moment to be enraptured by something.</p>
<p>     “YEAH!” Kíli yelled.</p>
<p>     “No! Fíli, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”</p>
<p>The new voice startled Fíli and he juggled the candle, almost dropping it on the floor far down below. He knew that voice well.</p>
<p>     “(Y/N)?” He called down, twisting painfully to look down at you. He caught sight of you just as you smacked Kíli in the belly, leaving him doubled over giggling. “Everything okay?” he asked, reminding himself to focus on the ladder’s rungs instead of what you and Kíli could be doing. Or how you could see his ass very clearly from his place on the ladder. <em>Go, go, go, gooo</em>, he thought to himself until his boots hit the floor.</p>
<p>     “Come here, Fee,” Kíli said, waving him over with a frantically flopping wrist. “Tell (Y/N) what this is.”</p>
<p>Fíli took the short row of garland Kíli shoved at him. In the middle, red berries clustered together as if just picked from the vine instead of having been hung above the doorway for over a moon. The light from the chandelier above reflected in its smooth skin like a perfect snowflake. It was a beautiful little decoration.</p>
<p>     “Tell us what it is, Fee.”</p>
<p>     “I <em>know</em> what it is,” you said, laying a hand over the middle Kíli’s face and pushing him away as he whined in protest. “I was just saying it <em>looks</em> like mistletoe.”</p>
<p>Fíli rolled his eyes. He could have counted down the seconds until Kíli did what Fíli <em>knew</em> he was going to do. <em>Three, two, one-</em></p>
<p>     “Ugh! Kíli!” you said, peeling your hand from his face and smearing your palm over his tunic. “Did you really just lick me?”</p>
<p>     “Yup,” Kíli grinned. “Now, tell Fíli about mistletoe. Tell him what you told me!”</p>
<p>Fíli twisted the garland in his fingertips, trying to remember what he read about true mistletoe in the Rohan scrolls. “It’s a human tradition, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>     “Yes,” you said. “It’s used as a decoration-”</p>
<p>     “And you can kiss anyone you want!” Kíli cried, yanking the garland from Fíli.</p>
<p>Your eyes almost rolled right out of your head and across the shining ballroom floor. “Within reason,” you said.</p>
<p>He waggled the plant before Fíli’s eyes. “I’m going to show this to Uncle Thorin. And whoever else I see along the way.”</p>
<p>     “Remember <em>consent</em>, Kíli!” Fíli called out after him. His voice reverberated off the stone and tile of the ball room, as did the slam of the wooden door at its entrance. He laughed at his brother, before returning to you, standing there alone with him in the endless room. “So what’s the story behind this stuff?” he asked, taking another small branch of garland from the box by his feet.</p>
<p>     “Well, not <em>this</em>,” you said, taking the green and red decoration from him. “Mistletoe looks a bit different. But it’s hung above doors or wherever people might stand. Whoever is-is underneath it…” you paused, thoughts drawn from your sentence to Fíli’s fingertips now circling yours as he admired the needles of the garland. </p>
<p>     “They kiss?”</p>
<p>     “Right.”</p>
<p>He wet his lips and saw your gaze drawn toward the movement. “Seems like a nice tradition.”</p>
<p>     “Yes. And you may not even need the mistletoe.”</p>
<p>He stepped closer to you, boot sliding over the tile. His thumb grazed the red berries and continued onto the palm of your hand. “Why is that?”</p>
<p>     “Well, the legend says that during Yuletide, mistletoe will grow from nothing above two people who are meant for each other.”</p>
<p>     “Those humans are very romantic, hm?”</p>
<p>His words made you smile. Your hands were still intertwined around the garland, but now your bodies were close, bellies touching wrists and the air between you shared.</p>
<p>     “I like it. Their romance,” you said.</p>
<p>     “Me too.”</p>
<p>The moment your eyes met Fíli’s, one of the thousand year old doors to the grand ballroom burst open, flying around on its hinges and slamming into the wall with a thud that seemed to echo throughout the mountain. At the alarming sound, Fíli wrapped you in his arms and shielded you from the threat. </p>
<p>When he registered the menace, however, he released you with a groan. </p>
<p>     “Kíli! Could you be any louder?” <em>Could you have come at a worse time?</em> “You scared us both half to death!”</p>
<p>Kíli surfed across the tile to his brother. “What did you think it was? A dragon? It’s just a door, Fee.”</p>
<p>     “A very <em>loud</em> door.”</p>
<p>     “I wouldn’t have been scared,” Kíli said with a sneer.</p>
<p>     “I was startled,” Fíli said, chest puffed out. “There’s a difference.”</p>
<p>Kíli shook his floppy hair. “Okay, brother. Anyways, I came back because I forgot something.” His head swiveled on its axis and he looked at you with a grin.</p>
<p>     “What?”</p>
<p>He bent into your side like a cat squeezes itself against a beloved owner’s ankle. Then his hand shot up, holding the piece of garland above your heads. “May I?”</p>
<p>     “It’s not really mistletoe, Kíli.”</p>
<p>     “It could be! You said you only saw it in the scrolls!” He pressed his nose into your cheek and whined. “Pleeeeeaaase?”</p>
<p>You couldn’t help but sneak a chuckle. Turning toward him, you took his chin in your fingers and kissed his lips sweetly. “Because you asked so nicely.”</p>
<p>He beamed, teeth shining brighter than all the Yule candles in Erebor. “I love this stuff!” He took your hand and twirled you, noticing the piece of garland you and Fíli had been sharing. “You have one too! Does that mean I get another kiss?”</p>
<p>     “No, I… was saving this one.”</p>
<p>He gasped. “Oh, (Y/N)’s got a crush,” he sang.</p>
<p>      “Go show Thorin your mistletoe,” Fíli said to Kíli, giving his brother a slight push towards the door.</p>
<p>With that, Kíli scurried across the ballroom and into the corridor, giving the entrance door one last slam behind him. It shook the chandeliers above and the large wreath still hung on its hook.</p>
<p>     “There goes your partner in crime,” you said to Fíli when his brother was surely gone.</p>
<p>     “Seems the ballroom will be festive for a bit longer,” he chuckled.</p>
<p>You shrugged, twirling the little branch in your hand. “What’s a few more days? I know how you love the decorations.”</p>
<p>     “Especially the mistletoe.”</p>
<p>As you hummed your agreement, Fíli bit his lip, deciding how to move forward to where you both supposedly wished to be. But you spoke first.</p>
<p>     “Maybe someday we could…” your hand shot upwards, dangling the garland over the pair of you, “Grow some together?”</p>
<p>He grinned. “Why wait?”</p>
<p>He kissed your lips, drawing you into him and cradling your head to keep you close. The garland didn’t stay in the air for long as you folded your arms around him and returned his kiss with the soft, tender passion of a long awaited desire fulfilled. </p>
<p>Yes, Yule was over and Fíli’s favorite trinkets had to be taken down and stored for next year. But now he had you, which was much better than even his favorite wreaths or candles or baubles. And as he held you, and kissed you, and felt you smiling against him, he looked forward to decorating for the next holiday and growing more mistletoe together with you.</p>
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